CAIRO, May 18 (Aswat Masriya) - The committee tasked by the Egyptian government with making legislative amendments approved of granting the National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) the authority to monitor and visit prisons, on Sunday. 

This authority will be exercised through coordination with the public prosecution. 

Egypt's Minister of Transitional Justice and the House of Representatives Ibrahim al-Heneidi had formerly approved of a draft law by NCHR to monitor living and medical conditions of prisoners.           

In late March, a delegation from NCHR visited Abu Zaabal prison in the northeast of Cairo recommending that an urgent investigation is conducted into incidents reported by prisoners.

The council members met with four prisoners over complaints filed to the country's top prosecutor "about being subjected to beatings, assaults, humiliation and torture," a statement from the council's media office said.

The delegation said prison authorities are not following the articles of the new prison bylaws on visits to prisoners and on the exercise they are allowed.

Egypt's top prosecutor had mandated members of the public prosecution to continue to pay surprise, periodic visits to prisons and police stations on April 8, to ensure laws are being applied.

Reports ordered by prosecutors on detention inside a police station in Old Cairo showed that the detention halls did not meet medical standards and were 'inadequate'. Ventilation, overcrowding, and poor hygiene inside the police station were cited as reasons behind infection and spread of disease among some of the detainees.